History Main / SoapWithinAShow

# And none of the above would be complete without liberal use of {{GASP}}!

->''"Yugi, I think I'm pregnant -- And ''you're'' the father!"''

# EasyAmnesia (Q: {{Let me get this straight}}...is there ''anyone'' here who doesn't have amnesia? A: I forget...)

# I'm pregnant

'''Monique:''' Oh, Calculon, I'm afraid you have a fourth personality the other three don't know about... And it and I are lovers!

* Done to the extreme in the ''{{That 70s Show}}'' season 2 episode "Vanstock".

* In ''[[TenchiMuyo Tenchi in Tokyo]]'' Princess Ayeka in one episode gets down to watch what she claims is her favorite soap opera: "''Everyone'' has amnesia!"
** In the TenchiMuyo OAV the girls all watch a strange alien soap opera, but it doesn't get much actual screen time.

* The long-lost 1990 Saturday morning cartoon series ''GravedaleHigh'' has ''Trudy and the Beast'', which stars wolf-man actor Billy Headstone as the eponymous Beast, who seems to be having an affair with a married woman. Cleofatra loves to watch [=TatB=] since [[CelebCrush she has a crush on Billy]].

** Later on, [[spoiler: Peridot]], of all people, ends up hooked on a camp-based show called Camp Pining Hearts (pictured above). Or rather, hooked on [[UpToEleven one episode for 78 hours]]. Steven wisely decides not to tell her there's more than one.

* ''GoodLuckCharlie'' had three of the characters suddenly become engrossed in a soap called ''Tears of Tomorrow'' and then move on to ''another'' soap when the first got cancelled (not-so-coincidentally at a time when cancelling long-running soaps was making headlines). The CreditsGag is a reenactment of ''Tears of Tomorrow'', which crams in a lot of the soap conventions mentioned in the main article within a space of ''30 seconds''.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/camp_pining_hearts_logo.png]]]]

* ''EarthGirlsAreEasy'' - Valerie throws her doctor fiance out of the house when he catches him cheating on her. Next morning she sits depressed in the kitchen, watching a soap opera of a doctor fooling around with a nurse on top of his comatose fiancee.

-->'''Debbie:''' Shh! Yuri just told Svetlana that he's leaving her for Olga!\\

* ''Acorn Antiques'' from ''Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV'' was a parody of everything that was bad about UK soaps of the period. Mostly ''Series/{{Crossroads}}'' (the episode where the antique shop is suddenly a health spa with no explanation is a reference to something very similar happening to the Crossroads Motel), but with a few digs at ''EastEnders'' (such as the tie-in single [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyone_Can_Fall_in_Love "Anyone Can Break a Vase"]]).

* ''TwinPeaks'' had one called ''Invitation to Love'' in which the action closely mirrored the story of the show. A lot was filmed, but most was cut away in post production.
* ''Moody's Point'' on ''TheAmandaShow''. Bonus points for ending on a never-resolved CliffHanger.
* Joey's soap in ''{{Friends}}'' is not strictly fictional (being ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'') but the ShowWithinAShow stuff we see fits perfectly anyway... It's outlandish even for a SoapOpera (brain transplants?!)...

** Later on, [[spoiler: Peridot]], of all people, ends up hooked on a camp-based show called Camp Pining Hearts. Or rather, hooked on [[UpToEleven one episode]]. Steven wisely decides not to tell her there's more than one.

[[folder:Videogames]]

* In ''RatchetAndClank'', Dr. Nefarious tends to short out and channel one of these whenever he gets angry.
** In one of the vid-comics, Quark is watching one when he's interrupted by the arrival of his trainer, Helga. Hilariously, it seems to be the exact same one Nefarious broadcasts.
** ''[[RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Tools of Destruction]]'' later named the show "Lance & Janice", and implied it to be a very popular LongRunner.

* ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'' has a sketch that purports to be an Australian soap opera. It gets increasingly surreal, ending with Fry's character admitting to Laurie's that they've been having an affair ("You mean we've been sleeping together all this time... behind my back?") and then giving as an excuse that he'd just discovered that he was his own father.

* StephenColbert was discussing how some soap operas are now including (obscenely obvious) {{product placement}}, and the segment rapidly devolved into this with the appearance of his {{evil twin}}.

* Similar to the example from ''{{Friends}}'', ''Dan and Becs'' had Becs land an important role on real-life Irish soap ''Fair City'', which rapidly transformed into a soap fitting of this trope, with Eastern European sex slaves, hitherto-unknown fatal illnesses and al Qaeda terrorist bombings (in a tiny Dublin bistro).
* In ''SonnyWithAChance'', one of the main characters is the star of a DawsonsCreek-esque soap opera called ''Mackenzie Falls''.

* ''Seducción Salvaje'' in the ''Series/WarehouseThirteen'' episode of the same name, is an over-the-top telenovella, which leads inevitably to a TrappedInTVLand plot.

* ''{{Soap}}''.

* A season 7 episode of ''SeventhHeaven'' had Eric, who was off from work recovering after open-heart surgery, sitting around the house watching a soap opera about a woman named Maria with alien DNA in her stomach.

* One episode of ''{{Psych}}'' has the the titular agency investigate a stabbing that was the result of a prop knife being swapped for a real one. Over the course of the episode nearly all cast members except Shawn and Lassiter are revealed as viewers. Even better, it was a Spanish-language ''{{telenovela}}'', themselves known for being over-the-top.

* ''Besos y Lagrimas,'' a sketch parodying telenovelas on ''[[SaturdayNightLive SNL]]''.

* WebAnimation/HomestarRunner's ''Caleb Rentpayer'' has shades of this, particularly in regards to its soundtrack and time slot. The only drama shown, however, is a spoof of ''{{Dallas}}''' "Who Shot J.R.?" episode, though the resolution is suitably absurd (it was [[spoiler:Homestar]]).

* ''PaperinikNewAdventures'' has "Patemi" (Worries). It includes, among other things, cyber-ninjas. To be honest, this was after the director was, essentially, sligthly mentally zombified.

* One of these was even a major plot point of the fifth season of ''[[NipTuck Nip/Tuck]]''. Just the name tells you everything: ''Hearts'n'Scalpels''

* In an episode of ''{{Stitch}}'' Gantu is seen watching a soap opera which involves a woman that has been married 25 times, and most of her previous husbands are apparently in a coma.